


Not Worth It

by Princessfbi



Series: Not You [2]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adult Role Model Thing, Bullying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Kids are the worst, Neither does Happy, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark doesn't really know how to hug, sweater paws
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 03:32:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11614992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princessfbi/pseuds/Princessfbi
Summary: They’d officially surpassed weird. Happy’s gut twisted. Something had happened.





	Not Worth It

If there was one thing Happy knew, it was that kids were dirty little assholes…unless they were teenagers. Then they were dirty medium sized assholes.

Of course, he’d known this for years. You didn’t go through life the size of a middle aged man at seventeen and not experience some first hand encounters with pimple faced, hormone induced sweating, assholes. But look who was laughing now.

He had a great job with incredible job security. He drove cars that cost more than his entire senior year’s college tuitions--- even if they weren’t his--- and he had a name that was generally associated with not only Tony Stark but Iron Man as well.

_Tony Stark with his bodyguard, Happy Hogan._

_Iron Man employee, Happy Hogan, had no comment..._

Life was good for Happy.

And yet… he’d still ended up right back where he never wanted to be.

Tony had made him start going to pick the kid up from school when they’d realized it took Peter over an hour and a half via subway just to get uptown. Every other Friday Tony and Peter met up for the night and did upgrades to the suit. If there was something they’d both learned from the Vulture incident --- on top of May’s lecture on the phone--- it was the importance of Peter feeling like he’d been heard.

He knew Tony still cringed at the memory of the kid’s face when he’d dropped out of his suit after the ferry. Happy and Tony were both trying to make an effort to at least make the kid feel like he was engaged in the conversation. And put upon as he sometimes felt, Happy knew that he at least owed it to the kid to give him a ride.

So, there he stood, leaning against the sleek black Audi with his sunglasses in full force, and parked behind an Asian mother in a mini van (who he knew not only cooked full homemade meals and then some every night but was the person who wrote the questions people _asked_ at science hearings and inquires and stuff beyond Happy’s pay grade.) Her name was Yvette. She was very nice.

The bell rang and the swarm was released. He scanned the crowd of students as they piled out through the two doors, slamming their bodies against the wood like a release of the tension from the day.

Odd, Happy thought. Peter usually was one of the first out. He knew Happy hated waiting in the carpool line.

It wasn’t until he finally spotted him that he realized that odd had been upgraded to weird. The crowd seemed to clump around the kid as he tried to push his way out. It was like people were intentionally getting in his way. With his head firmly bowed and his eyes glued to the ground in front of him, it was miracle he even found the doors at all.

Peter slung his bag further up his shoulder and breached whatever upstream effect he’d found himself caught in.

Happy waved, which he’d never done, but the weirdness didn’t seem to dissipate because the kid had almost looked lost once he’d hit the concrete steps.

“Out of the way, Penis Parker,” a boy snarked as he brushed past Peter. Happy’s lips tightened as he heard the name. It was something he knew the kids had called Peter but the kid had always seemed to roll his eyes and shrugged it off.

“Doesn’t really hold a candle to half the things I’ve been called on patrol,” Peter had joked the one time Tony had brought it up and after that they’d dropped it.

If it didn’t bother Peter then it didn’t bother Happy or Tony.

But instead of ignoring the insult, Peter faltered in his step with a clear cringe. It was gone before Happy could even clock it and a disturbingly blank expression replaced it on Peter’s face as he walked over to Happy.

“Hi Happy,” Peter said, not stopping before he opened the car door and threw himself in. Normally, Peter was beaming by the time he would reach the car, out of breath and doped up on the natural high of excitement. This time it came out as a mutter.

They’d officially surpassed weird. Happy’s gut twisted. Something had happened.

The car ride was silent.

Happy looked into the rearview mirror for what felt like the fifth time in two minutes. Peter was curled up in the seat behind the driver seat with one leg stretched in front of him and the other tucked up to his chest. His fist, though lost in the fabric of his oversized sweatshirt, was pressed against his mouth as he continued to stare out the window.

Maybe he should warn Tony that the kid was in a mood. Tony was getting better at this whole adult role model example position he’d found himself in but a teenager’s hormones were unpredictable at best and Tony was a lot better at handling things if he had a little time to prepare.

Happy glanced into the rearview again and nearly slammed his foot on the break pedal.

Peter roughly brushed his wrapped fist across his cheek, wiping away the tear, before shove his hand back against his mouth. From the pink on Peter’s cheeks he could tell that it hadn’t been the first.

“How was school, Pete?” Happy asked, forcing his eyes back to the road as he sped through the easy pass lane at the toll.

“Fine,” was all Peter said.

Right, Happy thought, and the Pope was Jewish.

“Anything---“ But before Happy could continue, he looked into the rearview and watched as Peter put in his headphones. And that Happy, knew, was as much as a dismissal as he was ever going to get from the kid.

* * *

“Mr. Stark,” Ned’s nervous voice asked over the call. “Can you not let Peter know I showed it to you? I know he wouldn’t have wanted you to see it.”

Tony felt as old as he was finally getting in that moment.

“Sure thing, Ed.”

“Ned.” Ned corrected. "I made sure to erase any trace of it on the web but without the original copy, I can’t really do much without it getting back out.”

“Don’t sweat it kid, you did good.” Besides, the damage was already done.

Tony threw his phone with a flip of his hand, letting it bounce onto his work station and away from him. He heaved out a pent up sigh that had swirled in his chest the moment he saw the kid all but drag himself into his workshop.

A video. God, kids were the worst. It wasn’t even a good one either. In Tony’s world it wouldn’t even so much as carry the weight of an insult but he guessed Peter’s life and Tony’s life were a lot more separate than he remembered sometimes.

Peter was out testing running the latest update Tony had installed in the suit, giving Tony amble time to call that other kid who helped Peter out time to time to ask what was up. Happy hadn’t been able to pry anything out of their web slinging protégé and after a few hours of nearly life ending small talk--- all of which Tony had to initiate which was also new since he normally couldn't get Peter to shut up--- Tony had nothing to go on. Now, he sort of wished he hadn’t asked.

Was this something he was suppose to tell May about? As an active adult in Peter’s life now did he need to step in and _do_ something about this?

At first, he’d thought Peter had just been down in the dumps about something but now it’d become painfully obvious that it was far worse. The kid was humiliated. Worn down and degraded into this quiet shell that Tony didn’t really know how to deal with.

Maybe he could call the school or something?

“Incoming: Spider-man.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. warned Tony before Peter swung in through the open window. Peter landed with a flip in front of Tony before straightening and pulling off his mask. A tiny semblance of his usual smile lit up his face as he detached his web shooters.

“The updates are awesome!”

“Just awesome?” Tony asked already taking the mask from Peter. “How’d the body temperature regulator work?”

Summer had stretched further into the year than was normal for New York but the nights were starting to get colder and colder. Tony had been tinkering away at the suit for a couple of weeks now to try and find the right conditioning level in the exoskeleton to keep Peter’s nimble lithe body from turning into a spider-icicle.

“Great. My legs seemed a little colder than my torso but I usually run around enough I haven’t been noticing them.”

Well, that just wasn’t going to cut it for Tony’s perfectionism. He turned his back as Peter slipped off the rest of his suit and changed into the sweats he’d brought with him. Peter circled around to the other side of the table when he was done, slipping on the over large hoodie that curled over his hands.

Maybe, the kid wouldn’t bring it up and Tony wouldn’t have to think of something to say.

Maybe, the kid _would_ bring it up and Tony would be surprised at the undying faith the kid seemed to have misplaced in him.

“Well,” Tony said, tossing a projection of the suit’s specs up in front of him. “This may take a little longer. Think you’re bunking here for the night. If you want to---“

“Ye… Yeah, that’d be fine…” Peter stumbled over which was adorable really since the kid practically had his own room at Tony’s place. After selling the tower, Tony had bought another tower. One that was for himself and not Stark Industries or Avengers anything. Tony’s… and now Peter’s on the weekends.

 Tony nodded. “I ordered Thai.”

“Ned told you didn’t he.”

It wasn’t really a question. Tony whirled around, feigning innocence. The semblance of a smile was gone and Peter was watching him with a sort of grim resignation like he was waiting for Tony throw in his witty contribution to it all.

“Told me what?” Tony asked. “People... People tell me a lot of things."

Tony rambled but Peter only lifted a brow, waiting expectantly

"Oh, you mean that Windows Movie crap? I thought you were suppose to be going to school with a bunch of science and technology nerds. Whoever made that thing was seriously overestimated. I’m going to have to talk to May because what are we paying for there?”

“You don’t pay anything,” Peter said pointedly.

Not for a want of trying, Tony thought. May had only agreed to college tuition.

He’d hoped that if he played it off as nothing Peter would see it as nothing but instead the kid curled up further into himself, his mouth twisting into a tight downward line.

God, what was he suppose to say? Peter's gaze drifted to the side as he pressed his cheek against his knee and his hands completely disappeared into the depths of his sleeves.

“Hey,” Tony said, his voice sturdier than he thought it would be. “Look at me.”

Peter in all his teenage glory rolled his eyes to look back over at Tony. Tony could practically see the kid bracing himself a taunt or maybe Tony’s fumblings at trying to form a lesson. But he didn't really care because the kid needed to hear this.

“Anyone who makes you feel like that?" Tony started with a wave of his screwdriver. "Isn’t worth it.”

Peter’s eyes widened, his body still. Tony couldn’t tell if it was from how he said it or the shock from the fact that Peter realized Tony had actually been listening to him for the last couple of weeks as he rambled about the pretty girl he’d taken up the courage to ask out. Regardless of either, he meant it. It took a lot of guts for Peter to even string a sentence together to someone he liked. And if she didn’t realize it and has the balls to laugh in his face when he did so then she wasn’t worth his time.

“Sure you could’ve done without someone recording the whole thing and broadcasting it across to the entire student body during your homeroom.” Peter actually flinched when Tony said that but he kept going. “But those losers are there and you’re here… hanging out with me, Tony Stark.”

Something seemed to break the tension in Peter and he curled his head down to rest back on his knee, a small quirk of his lips twitching into a smile.

“And I know I’m not some snobby pretty girl but let’s be honest, I’m a fucking catch.”

Peter snorted and hid his face into his leg.

“Seriously, I bet you could take Happy on a hot date. He hasn’t seen a movie since they actually started talking in them.”

From the grossed out noise Peter made he was fairly certain it was a no go but it was a enough to snap the kid from his vulnerable timid shell. Peter eventually meandered his way over to his own work station and focused on filling some more web cartridges.

When the Thai came--- and Tony had ordered a lot--- Peter had tore into the food, inhaling some noodles like they were oxygen and beaming at the cartons of dumplings.

Kids were gross, Tony agreed, but Peter was a pretty good one.


End file.
